SOCIAL EVENT AND ENVIRONMENT: IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND ITS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG THE MACCAA OROMO OF WESTERN ETHIOPIA

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Social Sciences SOCIAL EVENT AND ENVIRONMENT: IMPACT

ASSESSMENT AND ITS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG THE MACCAA OROMO OF WESTERN ETHIOPIA

Waktole HAILU DUGUMA

ABSTRACT:

THIS PAPER EXAMINES THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL EVENTS ON ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES. IN THIS INVESTIGATION PRIMARY DATA WERE GATHERED THROUGH DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT LIKE INTERVIEW, OBSERVATION AND FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION. IT PROVIDES IMPACTS OF SOCIAL EVENTS ON LAND WATER, PLANT, ANIMALS, AND OTHER LIVING CREATURES EXIST AROUND THE PLACE WHERE SOCIAL EVENTS ARE CELEBRATED. THOUGH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE CARE FOR ENVIRONMENT; VISITORS DO NOT CARE FOR THEM. THIS BRINGS NATURAL RESOURCE DISTRICTION.TO MINIMIZE THESE PROBLEMS STRONG MANAGEMENT PLAN IS IMPORTANT. THE BOARD AND EVENT MANAGER SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED PRIOR TO THE EVENT AND CONTROLS EACH AND EVERY ACTIVITY THAT MAY NEGATIVELY AFFECT NATURAL RESOURCE EXISTS AROUND EVENT VENUE. THE COMMITTEE IN GENERAL AND EVENT EXPERT IN PARTICULAR SHOULD IDENTIFY POSSIBLE RISK PRIOR TO THE EVENT AND FORWARD POSSIBLE SOLUTION AND OPERATE EVENT ACCORDINGLY.

KEY WORDS: SOCIAL EVENT, ENVIRONMENT, IMPACT ASSESSMENT, MANAGEMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

On a global basis there is unprecedented interest in festivals and events – at international and national level, in cities and towns, villages and hamlets, and in rural and coastal areas.

Everyone wants to celebrate their particular form of culture, tradition, difference or similarity with others. The participants involve in the event either for religious or secular activities like entertainment, economic and for other socio-cultural mission².

Festivals and events provide an opportunity for community cultural development and invisible phenomenon like a sense of place, values, and belief. Values and beliefs held by individuals in a community are inextricably linked and shape people’s attitudes and the way

1 Lecture at Jimma university, Collage of social sciences and Humanity Department of Oromo Folklore and Literature, e-mail address [email protected]

2 Wood, E.: Measuring event economic and social impacts: A case study of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. Discussion Paper. School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, (Leeds Metropolitan University:

2002)

170 they act in specific situations Ter, M.M., Boyd, W.E. and Gardiner, J.E³. This shows how the values, interests and aspirations of individuals are influenced by their natural environment (space and place) and how this leads to a sense of community that influences how the community celebrates; that affects the community’s wellbeing Craik, J.⁴.

Festivals and special events vary in nature from place to place and linked to social and cultural contexts. Thus understanding of the cultural identities of host communities shows significant festivals in human condition. The community celebrates a sense of place through organizing inclusive activities in specific safe environments. In addition, they are the outward manifestation of the identity of the community and provide a distinctive identifier of place and people Getz, D. ⁵.

No matter what the reason is for hosting a festival or event, there is a wide range of participants, each with different expectations, and this will impact on the management processes considered for each individual festival or event Hall, C.M.⁶.The management model adopted needs to match the requirements of all those involved in each stage of the individual festival or event, and tools such as those employed in managing projects and quality are useful Merrett, R. ⁷.

Although festivals and events are vary enormously in types and forms, the management issues relating to this wide range are often surprisingly similar and include working within an increasingly competitive environment with decreasing resources and more discerning and sophisticated consumers Gilbert, D. and Lizotte M⁸. Thus, Festivals and events can place pressure on natural environments. Therefore, it is important that organizers encourage a responsible approach to each individual’s relationship with the environment in which the event occurs. Increasing attention to details of livability in more fragile event environments has provided opportunities for increased awareness and education in sustainable practices. This paper addresses the wide-ranging operational and management issues of such a diverse activity.

It mainly focuses on environmental impacts of social event and its management practice in case of Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia.

1.1.Concept of Social Event

Many definitions are given for the event. An event is a special event recognizes a unique moment in time with ceremony and ritual to satisfy specific needs Arcodia & Robb⁹. According to Getz cited in Brown¹⁰event is themed public celebrations’ which brings people together to celebrate, to demonstrate, to worship, to honors, to remember, to socialize. The definition include ‘a onetime or infrequently occurring event of limited duration that provides the consumer with a leisure and social opportunity beyond everyday experience’. This definition is taken as embracing the other subcategories of events, including community festivals and mega-events.

3 Belhaven Press. ter, M.M., Boyd, W.E. and Gardiner, J.E.; Heritage Landscapes: Understanding Place and Communities;Lismore, (NSW: Southern Cross University Press. 2001)

4 Craik, J.. Are there cultural limits to tourism?; Journal of Sustainable Tourism,1995

5 Getz, D.; Event Management and Event Tourism. (New York: Cognizant Communication Corporation, 1997)

6 Hall, C.M. , Hallmark tourist events: impacts, management and planning: (London: Belhaven Press,1992)

7 Merrett, R.,Making sense of how festivals demonstrate a community’s sense of place.Conference paper, Events and Place Making: Building Destinations and Communities through Events; UTS, Sydney, 2002

8 Gilbert, D. and Lizotte, M.; Tourism and the Performing Arts. (Travel and Tourism Analyst,1998).

9 Arcodia, C. & Robb, A, ‘A future for event management: Taxonomy of Event management terms, 2000

10 Brown, L. , The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. (Oxford University Press,1993).

171 Social events are public celebrations take place at single space and point. Though some of social events are limited to majority of them are publically performed without age, sex color and religious belief, in social event any interesting group or individual can take part. Though the scholars define event, there is no universally accepted definition since they are define from different perspective. But the common element to most of these scholars definition is that event is a celebration of ceremony or ritual were a reflection of a culture and a community is reveal.

Most events come from a good idea that is linked to the culture of the community and are underpinned by a reflection of place and a reflection of that culture.

1.2. Major Cultural Festivals and Events

Baker and Associates¹¹in an assessment of the economic impacts of the Glastonbury Festival, expand on this 'general' approach by pointing out the less quantifiable economic impacts, such as trading opportunities for not-for-profit organizations and the contribution of the festival to local entrepreneurial culture. Data for this was gathered mainly through stakeholders’ interviews. Snowball and Willis¹²take a significantly different approach. In their (academic) study of the South African National Arts Festival, they use Choice Experiments (CE) to value the utility visitors derive from various sections of the festival. They argue that this methodology is particularly useful for estimating benefits of the various aspects of the festival and how these are differently valued by the audience. A detailed comparison of four existing economic impact studies of major festivals in the UK and Spain by Vrettos ¹³ found that all studies used different methodologies and justifications, especially in relation to the multipliers used. While all studies reported positive impacts, none questioned whether these impacts occurred because of the artistic or rather the social nature of the festival. Only one study noted that the net effect of the festival could be negative as well; however, no attempts were made to calculate the monetary value of any of the possible negative impacts (e.g. litter, noise, and criminality).

1.3. Social Impacts of Festivals and Events

Although there has been a strong focus on economic impacts, there are other types of impacts of events and festivals including social impacts. These include reinvigorating existing facilities and creating an image for the tourist destination, as well as promoting tourism sustainability Getz¹⁴. While there is a reasonable amount of literature on the social impacts of tourism, particularly through the sustainable tourism literature, less research has concentrated on the social impacts of events and festivals. Issues such as safety trust and ‘a sense of personal and collective efficacy’form part of the social capital concept and would appear to have relevance in an investigation of the social impacts of events and community festivals.

Drummond & U. McMahon-Beattie¹⁵ social impacts instrument for community festivals investigates a number of key elements pertinent to this study.

These include the impact of the festival on the friendliness, safety, tolerance and creativity of the community. Delamere concentrates his questionnaire on the social costs and

11 Baker Associates; Glastonbury Festival; economic impact assessment. Shepton Mallet: Mendip District Council, 2007

12 Snowball, J.D., & Willis, K.G.: Estimating the marginal utility of different sections of an arts festival: the case of visitors to the South African National Arts Festival: Leisure Studies. 2006

13 Vrettos, A: The economic value of arts & culture festivals. A comparison of four European Economic impact studies: University of Maastricht, 2006

14 Getz, D.; Event Management and Event Tourism. (New York: Cognizant Communication Corporation, 1997)

15 Drummond & U. McMahon-Beattie; Festival and events management: An international arts and culture perspective: Oxford, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. (311-328).

172 benefits of community festivals. For the purposes of this paper, social impacts are defined as any impacts which potentially have an impact on quality of life for local residents. Thus, economic outcomes of events (such as employment opportunities) and environmental effects (such as litter) are included because perceptions of such impacts are likely to contribute to residents’ overall reactions to an event. This is consistent with most of the previous work in this area. Ritchie and later Hall¹⁶ suggested a classification of potential event impacts comprising six dimensions; economic, tourism/commercial, physical, socio-cultural, psychological and political.

Mason and Beaumont-Kerridge¹⁷ have examined visitor and residents' attitudes towards the economic, socio-cultural, environmental and political (community) impacts of the Sidmouth International Festival, using visitor surveys and focus groups with local residents during and after the festival. This study contains an extensive discussion of earlier publications and concludes that 'the majority of festival research has tended to ignore or at least play down the other impacts that can be classified under the headings of environmental, sociocultural or political‟. Similar criticism can be found in the work of Carlsen et al.¹⁸ explicitly call upon other festival researchers to 'move beyond economic impacts in order to understand the complex and comprehensive set of benefits and dis benefits associated with festivals'. Writing on the Edinburgh Festivals, they argue that the cultural, community and social benefits of major festivals have not been systematically studied, while they point at the limitations of focusing on more narrow economic outcomes, such as comparability, reliability, and utility of estimates.

As an alternative, they propose an „inclusive research agenda', focused on 'the benefits of the festivals for the arts, culture, community, economy, society, and stakeholders.

1.4. Materials and Methods

In this investigation observation used as principal research method, because irrecha celebration is relevant for observation .it contains various activities, material culture, performance, dancing, which is easily visible and understood by noticing at its natural setting or spot. I observed activities performed and material used on the irrecha celebration from the beginning to the end and wrote what I understood.

Interview can be of two types, informal and formal. Formal interview refers to systematic asking of the same question of every individual given sample. This means the researcher proposed well-structured and meaning full question focusing on specific topic of interest and ask his or her respondents either by feuding or distribute it to them. Informal interview involves asking open ended question at field and it gives tremendous freedom to explain his or her idea. From these types of interview I used informal interview which is mainly done at spot.

2. MAIN TEXT

2.1. Social Event and Oromo

Social event is universal phenomena Even though time, place and, objectives behind celebrating social event different from culture to culture. Society of this world has his own

16 Ritchie, J.R.B., Assessing the impact of hallmark events: conceptual and research issues: Journal of Travel Research, 1984 and Hall, C.M., Hallmark tourist events: impacts, management and planning: (London: Belhaven Press,1992)

17 Mason, P., & Beaumont-Kerridge, J. ,: Attitudes of visitors and residents to the impacts of the 2001 Sidmouth International Festival: Ali-Knight, 2004

18 Carlsen, J., Ali-Knight, J., & Robertson, M.; ACCESS - a research agenda for Edinburgh Festivals; Event Management, 2007

173 ritual event which is highly connected to culture. Especially social events are frequently performed by society governs by culture and nature. Among the society of this universe who are live by culture and nature Oromo ethnic group is one.

Oromo ethnic group is a branch of Cushitic family living in the horn of Africa. Oromo society has appreciable culture which has heroine’s relation with nature. Oromo respect, each other and live together live in peace, love. Oromo society treat not only human being but also other all creatures like forest, animals, water, and other biodiversity created by waaqa. For Oromo Waaqa, safuu and ayyana have great position. Waaqaa is creator of all universe and all other creatures, keeper, and potentate of all creatures. As Oromo philosophy Waaqa keeps human, gives peace, prosperity. Thus why the Oromo prey for waaqa every time in his/her life.

Nagana nu olchitee nagana bulchi

As you kept us in daytime, retain us at night too Hamaa nuraa qabi

Protect us from depraved fortune Dogoggora nu olchi Protect us from inaccuracies

Nagaa nuu buusi

Give us harmony and prosperity

Among the Oromo the other grateful things is ayyaana. Oromo perceived ayyaana as divine keeper that is given from waaqaa (god) to all creatures. As Bartle¹⁹ ayyaanaa communicates creatures and creator.it keeps all creatures from bad fortune. Thus why, the killer prays for Dachee while he goes to forest to kill animal for trophy. While seceded they explain their filling through different songs.

The other concept highly connected to Oromo world view is safuu. As Gemuchu Megersa ²⁰stated safuu is law of creator that everybody must respect. According to Oromo customary law the one who breaks the law of creator will encounter bad fortune, lacks peace, fertility and harmony. Thus all individual members of the society carefully keep it.Unconsciously if acts against law of waaqaa are committed by individual or group of society, Oromo performs ritual purification and reconcile himself to waaqaa. Since it belief that the doer lacks, peace and fertility prey for Waaqa. On such social event it is mandatory for all member of the society to avail and fully participate in the incident.as Oromo view all wrong and crime has consequences on harmonies life human being and nature.as Oromo view individual act which violate law of creator has direct consequences on society as whole and other living things. Thus everybody actively involved in the activity of ritual purification.

Individual who fail to participate in such public activity is punished by customary enforcing mechanism like exclusion.

2.2. Impacts of Social Event

Social event has both positive and negative impacts on socio cultural life, economic and environment where the occasion taking place.

19 Bartels, L., Oromo Religion: Myth and Rites of western Oromo of Ethiopia: An attempt to understand. (Berlin.

Reimer, 1983)

20 Gemechu Megersa; Identity, Knowledge System and the Colonizing Structure: (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1993)

174 2.2.1. Positive Impacts

Social events are performed in group. Most of the time, such events are carried out by number of individual who share common culture. Some it participant of the even can have various culture; people who has different culture can take part in the celebration for visiting and recreation and other purpose. Though it constructed from people of the same culture or people different culture it is crowd of people collected single spaces specific purpose. The purpose of the event can be social, political, cultural or religious for whatever it is when people come together for single purpose they have similar attitude and objective on that issue. These contribute for participants in particular and ethnic group in general. Strength solidarity and love among the participants, reveal identity, serve as source of tourism, conserve and promote culture.

Social event bind people together promote peace love, and unity among themselves.

They understood it, purpose of the event in the same manner; they interpret performance, activity, outcome of the event the manner. These linkages strengthen their relationship and develop tolerance for the different exist between them.in this way it promotes sustainable peace and love between individual members of the society and enter-ethnic group.

On the other hand social event has great contribution in marking the identity of the participants. Activities and performance take place on the stage by participant shows the performers and their culture. Costumes wore on celebration, materials, jewelry, and other materials used on the event are meaningful and convey message. Body movement, non-verbal communication, dance, songs, cursing, blessing, worship and stage in general are the reflector of identity of participants.

Not only showing identity but also Social event serves as source of tourism. On one it keeps and preserve culture and history of participant on other it generate income for host community and country in general by attracting tourist from other areas. Generate extra money for country, sources of employment for society. Contributes for sustainable development of one country and transforms social, economic, cultural and political activities of society.

On the other hand social event protect and preserve material and spiritual element of culture. Ritual, festival and other non-cultural events are self-protective, cannot easily degraded by both internal and external factors. Social event not conserve themselves but also other spiritual elements of culture. Because the existence social event are encourage the existence of dance, song, belief and other intangible culture. In addition, it also basis material culture like costume, symbolic material jewelry and other which mandatory on the stage.

Likewise it gives attention for the place where the social event celebrated. This is especially true for the event take place in outdoor on open air. The place/s are taken as historical site get attention to be conserved and protected. In this way it play key role in environmental conservation and protection.

2.2.2. Negative Impacts

Social event can Couse damaging and distraction of plant and animals from their place.

Participant of different social event can cut branch of tree for different purpose like cleaning and seating. Cutting down of tree on the other hand, cause migration animals from their place.

Likewise different creatures live in water can be affected by social event doe to wastage of contaminated things in to water. Such contaminated things wasted in to water affect living creatures live in water body which results to the dying of living things in water body and surround the place where social events are carried out. Dying of different insects like bees’

aunt, and etc which leads to the decrement of the polarization of plants from one are to other.as results of social event soil erosion and land degradation can be emerged. Though host

175 community take care for environment and surrounding living creatures, visitors and other gust invited from other culture do not. On occasion of social event which contains large number of people affect ecosystem, while the participant move here and there grass, tree, sacred tree and place may damage.

On the other hand social event can cause reduction of bio diversity in the environment.

Activity and performance take place on social event Couse disturbing on host community Due to crowd movement on a place where event carried out unstable condition can be happened on the surrounding habitant like loud sound which may disturb their living. Similarly harmonious relationship exist between livings creatures can be disturbed as a result of alienation single creatures.

Social event is not only disturb local inhabitant but also it can Couse environmental pollution .most of social event celebrated in open air are performed continuously for long period of time at single place. The participant involve in the incident up to the end. During the course of the event they caste wastes material on the surrounding environment. Similarly littering liquid of washed material used in on the event can also pollute the areas of the event.

This eradicates and contaminates the stage and surrounding place.

Similarly materials and paper used for event promotion pollute venue and surrounding areas. Dozens of materials like soft drink, high land, candy and gamy, bought from local shop that people use on the event can also Couse environmental pollution. People use them through their container on the environment. Promotional papers, soft and other materials that participant and committee used in the course of the event can contaminate environment. The pollution can goes beyond the specific venue where event takes place.

The pollution can causes for the distraction surrounding living things like plants, animals and other creature surround the place where social event takes place. Littering, urine and other waste materials mixed in to water which directly cause water pollution which in turn affect host community and other living things living in the area. This especially true for social event takes place in outdoor at river basin, sea, salty water, ocean and stream.

Likewise social event affects plants and other living creatures live in it. Prior to social event everything needed for event must be prepared. This pre-preparation can be road, stage preparation, and temporary hotel and other facilities. These activities causes for the clearing of the tree and distraction of animals from their home. In addition to this, the crowd of people come together at single place for celebrating event eradicates grass and plants exist at event venue.to see the stage very well the participant climb on the tree and breaks the branch of the tree. Either for seating or for shadow, the participant breakdowns the branch of the tree where the there is no prepared seating. Degradation of plant leads the migration or disruption living creatures from their place. This is the main obstacle for the sustainability of social event itself and need serious control and management.

2.3. Management

To avoid or to minimize the above mention negative impacts of social event appropriate management is compulsory. Qualified event manager to gather with management committee should be organized prior to event. Event manager should manage each and every activity performed in relation to the event and possible side effect and potential hazards from the beginning to the end. The committee should consider both sides the interest of participant and facility and side effect it may has on environment and surrounding natural resources and host community. In generally the following tasks should be considered by event manager.

176 He/she must coordinate all activities performed in pre-event, post event and during event. Among these, coordination giving clear orientation for participants, guests and visitors are consenting facility, environmental protection. Their does and don’t should be introduced very well with its location.so that participant, guest and visitors should act accordingly.

Event manager should also consider the interest of local people. He/she should manage sound, microphone, music, and other activity which disturb local communities. If the event do not have permanent and pre-established venue it is preferable if it is far away from local resident. Based on numbers of expected participants the event manager should prepare stage and setting temporary toilet food stall at event place. Mere preparation is not enough still giving clear orientation about its location is very important. So that participants use it throughout the course of the event.

Similarly event manager should prepare place for waste materials (for both solid and liquid). Among these putting container and preparing hole are necessary. Additionally, putting basket several place for waste material like highland water, paper and soft and telling the participant to put unwanted material in prepared vessel only. Preparing sewage for littering liquid and pour at prepared place. On the other hand if possible providing permanent material like glass, pot and other material kept for use in future can minimize environmental pollution.

Take care for the natural resource found around the place where that event is performed.

Protecting discarded materials and scattering water in order not mix with water source exist in the area. The same is true for living creatures around the event venue; enclosing grass, insect and other living creatures found in the venue and surround place.Taking care for plant and other animals in the area is important. The committee should insure that participant should not breaks the tree either for shadow and seating purpose. Preparing enough seating as per expected number of participants with well-prepared shadow either for san or rain.in this way the event manager can minimize unexpected risk on natural resource and environment. On the other hand such strong plane can contribute for the success and sustainability of the event.

3. CONCLUSION

Social event is universal phenomenon and has both positive and negative impacts.

Positively it contributes to preservation and promotion of culture and history of particular group where it originates. On the other hand it negatively affects host community, environment and natural resource found around venue where it takes place. Positive side of social event should be strengthen and continues. Whereas side effect of social event should be minimized. The effect of social event environment and natural resource can minimizes through organizing qualified management committee.

The event manager should have skill and should have detail knowledge about culture, history, religion, and world view of the participant and host community. He/she should analysis the side effect of single social event on which he/she becomes manager and settle possible solution prior to the event. Similarly, interest and facility that should be provided for participant at venue should be identified and delivered to participants at event place relatively as anticipated participant number.

On the other hand objective and mission of the event should be introduced to the target audience before the date of event. Promotion should be done on issue like seating place, right and obligation of participant and committee natural resource and environment related discipline, service and its location.so that participant can easily asses and use it without confusion. Likewise putting basket in which waste materials are casted is also important and reduces environmental pollution. In generally strong plan on side effect of social event on

177 environment, natural resource and host community and effectively work on its implementation reduces possible risk and promotes for the sustainability of social event.